As the first speaker began my attention was
riveted to the front of the auditorium. Her name was Caroline. She described how the telephone had rung and
how she heard the voice of her son’s former girlfriend on the line. After the gal identified herself she simply
stated the most unimaginable set of words, “Your son is dead.”

No it was not an official policeman knocking
on her door but a stranger from the past delivering the most tragic words that
she could ever imagine coming from the telephone receiver. This child of hers was not a little boy but
rather a man – but he was still her ‘baby’ who was born in 1967 and on that
fateful day on 1997 he was murdered by a Parolee who had been released from
prison.

Caroline’s son was one of three guys that the
Parolee had murdered. The police knew
who and where the Parolee lived and the fact that he was out of prison. They also could have caught the ‘suspect’
except that things were kind of botched in an investigation.

Caroline’s son was the third one to be
murdered before the Parolee was caught.

Caroline knew little or nothing about the
procedures that the law and CSC have in dealing with murderers… and the
protection of the rights of an accused man that has not yet been convicted. Up
to that time when Caroline’s family had read something in the News it was only
someone else’s story.

Caroline described the horrible steps of
trying to see justice done. Remember that was 1997, a long time ago. And you also need to know that because of
what Caroline and many others have gone through with the murder of their kids,
the Victim’s issues have now been better addressed.

Because of the brave heart of Caroline and
many others that stood up to tell the Government of Canada that the way you do
things is ALL WRONG – things changed.

One can only imagine the unending nightmares
that these families underwent… and none of us knew anything about it!

My head and heart were reeling as Caroline
spoke.

BUT CAROLINE was only the first person of six
that spoke yesterday. All six people were Victims of crime… horrible crimes
committed by people that entered their lives and destroyed their family’s life.

Are you ready to hear Pam’s story? I wasn’t.

As she stood hesitantly behind the microphone
it was to be her first time to tell the story in public – specially with nearly
a full house in the sanctuary – where love and God and all things nice are
usually talked about.

We were sitting in a new Salvation Army
church in Kingston, Ontario. We were
attending something entitled “Coping and Thriving” that had Victims of Crime
sharing their stories. The whole day was sponsored by the Victim’s Advisory
Committee – VAC. It was designed to help
people like me see, hear and maybe understand what they had gone through or are
dealing with every day of their lives!!!

Even this morning, one day after the powerful
day I am stunned by what I have heard. I am going to need weeks and maybe a
lifetime to process what I heard from these people.

Pam was a teacher in a school. She is well
educated. Her husband was a Queen’s University Graduate. They had a family from what I heard. One boy
named Alexander who still lived at home and a daughter who lived two hours away
with her husband.

This family was far, far away from the
typical low life family that I have observed in the different communities I
have lived in. You know the kind,
unemployed, living on social assistance and thoroughly messed up with bad
relational problems. Nope these folk
were not like that. Pam and her family
were high middle class folk that lived in a nice place.

For some unusual reason the husband had
allowed Alexander to call his sister when the nightmare was taking place. This ‘husband’, ‘dad’ and monster was beating
his wife Pam with a baseball bat – and the beating was continuing, ongoing, not
stopping – for OVER TWO HOURS!!

Their daughter and her husband immediately
left where they live and travelled the two long hours to get ‘home’ to help
mom.

At the end of the beating this monster was
about to use a knife to finish his loving wife off. Somehow the knife broke…
somehow help arrived… and somehow Pam lived through it all.

She did tell the audience yesterday that we
need to be careful what we say or do when we come into a nightmare with someone
like herself. She remembers the words of
the poor Ambulance attendant as this person came into the crime scene… “My God!
My God! This is terrible!” as the attendant tried to absorb what she was
seeing.

But these words were exactly the ones that I
was uttering as I tried to take in the visual images that my brain was creating
as I listened. Unfortunately for my life – this Victim dragged me into her life
and the horror of what she was dealing with at the moment. But she was not stopping
there… she continued to drag me into her life as her story continued.

The ‘loving, husband, father, University
Graduate’ was tried and convicted then sent prison. He served his time and was eventually
released to society again. On Parole?
YES!

And while he was out he began using the computer
to stalk his wife again. On his computer they found Google Earth Images of her
home. They also found thousands of
photos of women that looked like his wife.
He was proving again his depravity.

He was a diagnosed (I hope I have this right
or close to it)… a sexual sadist that wanted to kill women that looked like his
wife, and then have sex with her dead body.
At the point she described the diagnosis I think I had almost shut down
mentally. The images that my mind was processing simply were overwhelming me.

Pam lived on to find a new life with her
kids… and her dog Amber. Amber died at 15 years old… and I think she has a new
pup now.

Pam shared some personal and private areas of
her life. For two years after the attack she slept with her running shoes on – just
in case he came back again.

As Pam moved into life again she found the
new obstacles that she would have to grapple with.

Her insurance company would not help with any
disability in that she was a teacher… and her telling her story of the beating
didn’t rate… SHE SHOULD STILL BE ABLE TO HOLD THE CHALK! Good God how stupid and insensitive can a
company be!!!? Or should I say – can one person be!?

I wish I had the name of that Insurance
Company… and if I had it I would publish it for the whole world to read. And I
do hope that the agent for that company never faces Crime the way that Pam had
to!!!

God help that person!!!!!! God help me to not
be insensitive too.

When Pam sat down, Kerri came to the
podium. Pam and Caroline were both old
enough to be Kerri’s mom. Kerri is in
her early 30s now.

Her first statements caught my
attention. She said, “Secrets keep you sick. Not all scars show...not
all wounds heal...”.

She began
by sharing how she sat in court and listened to a woman read her impact
statement. Sitting on the other side of
the bullet proof glass was the monster that had abducted the woman’s 9 year old
daughter, raped and killed her. Kerri listened and remembered quietly – her own
shame keeping her own horrible secret.

Kerri kept
that horrible secret for 20 years before the dam inside her broke open and the
truth began to seep out.

Kerri
first poured part of her story to the Therapist that she was meeting with. This ‘listener’ was the first one to hear her
story. She had told no one… not her
husband or her two children… not her parents and not the police.

After the
Therapist listened, Kerri’s friend Robin was the next person to hear. Kerri told us how she felt when she saw Robin
recoil in horror as she shared the parts of her story. The horrible secret that
she had kept inside, thinking that no one would ever believe what had happened
to her – so SHE TOLD NO ONE. Now Robin
listened for the first time and showed the pain in her love for her friend… not
the rejection that Kerri had thought might happen.

Next she
told the Police and then she told her husband.

The story
happened as I said already – two decades before. She was just a young girl when
the abductor grab her in that parking lot, took to a secluded spot and then
defiled her. She saw the glistening of the
knife he was about to use on her afterward... but somehow turned, or moved and
was not stabbed. For some reason I could
not understand, he took Kerri back with her terrible secret and let her
go. Threats? Fear? Nightmares? Freedom? A feigned safety? These may all be reasons why Kerri was released…
but in actual fact she never was released.

The
abductor had trapped her forever in her mind.

How does a
young girl of 11 years old deal with something so rotten and vile… that she
would believe “no one will believe me”?

As I spoke
with this beautiful young lady after the session I was amazed at the composure of
who she is now. Her friend Robin sat nearby and joined our conversation by
listening.

Kerri, if
you ever read this… you are amazing. And for being your first time to share the
story to group like we were… you did very well. I do not doubt for a second
that you will be instrumental in witnessing the unlocking of the prison of the
mind for thousands.

Your husband
is more than amazing and ranks right up there with Robin. People that stay the
course of rough waters and never get tired of loving the one that is hurting.
Never having to say more than a few words... just being there.

Both of
these people should receive the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medals! They are
heroes.

After Kerri
finished hearing her story I wasn’t sure I could handle more. But more was to come.

More came
with Janet.

Janet’s
parents lived in Napanee, Ontario. I think the kids knew that mom and dad were
having problems but never realized how serious the problems were. Their kids
were grown and out on their own. When
Janet described having her own kids and one particular child that presented
himself at the time of her family’s tragedy was mentioned.

Her mom had
left her dad to go into a women’s shelter for a while, until she figured out
what she might do next. One particular day she decided that she felt strong
enough to return home prepare herself to leave home for good.

It never would happen. Dad, the husband of 31
years, father of his children, and grandpa… stabbed his wife to death. He
stabbed her 31 times – once for each year they were married.

As her daughter Janet told her story of her
mother, and her dad, she choked up often.

She lost her mother in that moment as well as
her dad. He went to prison for 25 years –
which will be his life undoubtedly.

I wanted to ask if the grandkids ever would
go to see Grandpa? What this man did on
that fate-filled/hate-filled day destroyed everyone.

As you read what I am trying to pour out, you
may well feel the pain of what these ladies have each gone through. But my question is… can you feel deep enough
what those around the Victim of these crimes should feel?

Is it, perhaps, just a very treacherous story
that invades your life for a few moments in one day? Then with some discomfort you mutter platitudes
like, “Dear, you just need to move on. You have a life to live. Forget about
what happened…”

Yes… kind and well-meaning people say that
kind thing to Victims… then they move on to the next good TV program.

Finally when Jasmine`s mom, Corrine Lamoureau,
stood to begin speaking I wasn`t sure that I could handle anymore.

Corrine`s words spilled out of a horrific
tragedy. Her 14 year old daughter Jasmine was walking with her boyfriend and
her friend Caitlin on the side of the road facing the traffic… so it was safer
for them.

A car driven by a drunken fool came racing in
the same direction they were walking.
Speed guestimates were perhaps approaching 100 mph when he hit the
teens. Each teen`s body landed on three different lawns. The fools vehicle stopped but then started
again lurching forward until it hit someone`s house.

The words that ring in my ears “Dear, you
just need to move on. You have a life to live. Forget about what happened…”
never stop.

Idiots without any understanding of what a
Victim goes through utter stupid things… not to these women of course but over
35 years of being an ordained minister I have heard them all.

It was Father`s Day 2009 when her daughter
died. Corrine formed ‘Impact 6/21” that
is committed to telling the next generation what happens when you drink and
drive… and kill people.

She went so far as to go to the Prison that the
idiot is housed in. She asked to see
where he is housed. After repeated
requests they did allow her access to see what it is like.

The drunk driver blames his “Ex” for giving
him too much booze. Or maybe he blames the bar tender that served him the drinks
until he was completely wasted.

But neither the “Ex” nor the Bar Tender were
driving the vehicle as the murder weapon – he was the only person to blame… but
he takes none at all.

After Corrine spoke, her new friend Lizanne
Cronier shared her story.

Lizanne didn’t know Corrine at the time of
the accident.

Lizanne was on the way to the store to buy
something when the vehicle whizzed between her and another vehicle. She stopped and turned her own car around to
see if she could get his license number.

Instead of the license number she found the
car stopped off the road. But that was
after she found the bodies of the teenagers lying in three different spots –
all dead.

Lizanne voice also broke as she described the
horrors from those that witnessed crimes. The ones that we seldom think of or
care about.

The ambulance driver I shared about earlier
also was like Lizanne – immersed and not knowing what to say or do to help. Yet
in being confronted with the horror she has to deal with it.

Crime makes us all Victims.

Today I write to help me sort it out. I am
very thankful for the people that came to share their stories. They helped me see… and feel… and think it
through. They helped me realize that I must do something to help in whatever
way I can.

After
the New Year I began work on the Statue of Mary. It is entitled “Mary – Queen of Heaven”.

The
Statue was painted completely white about 45 years ago when a major renovation
on the church took place.

“Mary”
is not complete. And this week she will be back in her place to encourage
worship at Sacred Heart Church.

I
cannot adequately express the joy that I feel with the completion of this piece
of art.

In
the process of preparing to paint Mary I dug below the white paint to find some
of the most amazing and intricate designs ever.
Then to best of my ability I tried to follow he design the original
artist had presented. I tried to hard but still it is not quite as good. But
only the original artist and Mary know the areas that needed their hands – not mine.

But
the statue is now complete. The work is all done. And this coming Sunday the
folk will see the final product of weeks of work.

Following
the signature below you will see the many photos. My Facebook Friends have already
had an opportunity to see. Here she is
for my Blog Followers.

As they stepped into our elevator the three couples
already were definitely in a party mood. The giggles burst in peals of laughter. Too much fun!

They were younger than we are for sure.

On the way down the 31 floor hotel one man
with the group caught my eye and asked, “How are you folks tonight?”

I smiled and said, “Great!”

He responded, “So are you with the Boat Show
too?” with a big grin on his face. And
his giggling friends all looked at us.

“Nope. I am here about Prisons and guys in
prison.” expecting a comeback of some kind.

You know – on an elevator with happy people
that are in the party mood, you can completely change the atmosphere by a
statement like that. Wow!

From giggles to sober in a heartbeat the ‘salesman’
didn’t know what to say.

In business we are trained to do an ‘elevator
talk’. You are supposed to be able to
tell other parties sharing the elevator with you, what you do, and then promote
your business before you reach the ground floor. And then as you exit the
elevator you present your business card and invite them to call you.

He was starting his ‘elevator talk’. My answer
left him sputtering a little. The door
opened and they all giggled at him. The
gals with him, perhaps the bathing suit beauties around his boats, knew his ‘elevator
talk’ routine. Now this was really
funny.

Tell someone on an elevator that you are
either from Prison, or going into Prison or know people that live there… they
DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO SAY! Too darn funny!

My wife and I are staying in a beautiful
hotel in Ottawa to frame this story properly.
I am attending a national committee meeting where I sit as the vice-chair
for Canada. The committee is dealing
with all the issues inside of prison and outside of prison. We will report on
what is happening in each of our Provinces across Canada. Mine is Ontario.

This morning I thought of the poor guy that
kind of choked in the middle of his elevator talk.

I am also thinking of what will happen in the
next two days. My wife will be shopping and having fun as I sit and listen with
a numb bum.

But the elevator talk was priceless – and the
dude will be thinking about me today. Too funny.

As my friends in parts of Britain are
struggling with the fact that some of their meat that was thought to be beef –
was actually horse… I feel for them.

The vegetarian folk laughed at the meat
eaters, “That will teach you barbarians!” they scoffed. “You should look to the
vegetarian diet, it is much safer!”

Then today another friend of mine shared a
great photo for the vegetarians. Here it
is.

Now over the days of dieting my wife has
found some amazing pre-assembled salads. All you have to do is tear open the
package and pour on the small package of dressing. It is so easy and so good.

You now need to read of the story that arrived
to the photo above. The Story for
you.

Some of the family had already eaten the
salad. The lady that discovered the ‘treasure’ in her salad had not yet taken a
bite.

I am going to eat breakfast now. I am going to watch TV as I do. I am not
going to look into my bowl or on my plate.
That is the way that I usually do it.
I concentrate on something else or someone else that is speaking. At
least that is the way that I have done it up to now.

And from this minute on if there is anything
in the salad that is a wee bit hard to cut… or comes in lumps… I think I will
carefully push the plate away.

Who knows what bird might be in the bush when
they plucked the leaves for all of us wanna be vegans!!?

Let alone all the bugs that crawled over that
green leaf.

Horse meat looks good – if it is cooked
right!

Dog meat is more reddish than beef.

And both animals were made dead before being
cut up. They were not like the poor little bird that became famous with one
salad.

My diet is going to be far easier from this
minute on. I am simply not going to eat anything!

Gag me… nope you won’t have to do that at
all. I am able to do that part on my own.
Deep breath… deeeeeep breath…. Pant, pant, pant… Deeeeeep Breath!

Did you catch the way that some of the idiots
in the British press have been acting lately?
You know the ones that take everything out of context and blow words
around like I blow snow??

Well I am totally convinced that they have
had way too much snow fall in good old Britain and particularly the London
area. It has affected the writers of stupid articles in that fair land.

I don’t think it is anything new – it is just
the same old same old stuff that goes around.
They write things to make them feel like they have done a job – when in
actual fact the words they write confirms our suspicions that they are idiots.

Now I want to state something that I am proud
of – my family left England about 400 years ago to arrive in Hingham, Mass.,
naming that village after the place they left in England. Then from there they
wondered further and further into the new land that would eventually become the
USA. From the USA they wondered north to what had become Canada and in
particular – Saskatchewan. They arrived in Saskatchewan about the time or just
after it was named.

So I am proud that the family escaped good old
England and the newspaper writers of that country. We are free to be less criticized than they
are.

What am I referring to? Well this week the Royals are again the target
of the Newspaper Hoopla.

One poor woman was the target of their
stupidity by certain newspaper writers misquoting her speech that she had made
concerning the ‘Royals’. She was in fact asking people to leave the Royals be
and stop railing on them about what they wear and what they do.

Mind you this is the same time that the
Duchess of Kent, Kate Middelton, comes out to a function. Every camera in Britain was focused on her ‘baby
bump’. She is pregnant and will be
having the most popular baby of all times according to what all are saying.

So at this time misquotes are flying saying
that Ms. Hillary Mantel has said terrible things about Kate and other
Royals. Nothing and I mean absolutely nothing
could be further from the truth – Hillary was standing up for Kate and other
Royals and telling the public to leave them alone!

I believe that Hillary is very correct in
what she has written. The obsession that
the Newspapers have with hounding these poor people is nuts. Worse yet the
people that buy the newspapers to see what someone has said in an outlandish
way are even worse.

The dear folk of Britain run to buy the
biggest lies to feed their own minds full of stupidity. I mean why buy this crap when you know that
it is not true?

Often I am in the lineup at the cash register
I see the ‘rumour magazines’ staring at me. The titles are stupid to the max.
They have little truth and everyone knows it. But people actually buy the
stuff!!! Can you believe it!!?

Hillary you are a great woman and what you
have said makes perfect sense.

Also Hillary if you are sick of the whackos
that live in Britain… come to Canada. We
are related in some way or other but we all escaped the nut bars that write
newspapers on the lovely isle.

Two robberies took place not long ago that
has caused much concern. One involved
diamonds and the other money.

A small group of highly organized bandits hit
an airplane in Belgium and took the diamonds. Estimates are that the worth
between 50 – 130 Million Euros.

Secondly - A small lady ‘stole’ $2.5 Million
of someone’s money – without even leaving home.

The bandits were very bold. The small lady is also very bold but for a
different reason… and she is not a thief at all – yet they claim she ‘stole’
money.

Now If I stop here and ask you to solve this
riddle – could you do it?

I think you have already solved one part of the
riddle. That part is the heist of the
diamonds that took less than 5 minutes to carry out… but likely months of
planning from the look of it. The news
story can be seen here.

But you may not get the other one as easily.

Let me give you more hints about the lady.

She was able to pocket the money – all $2.5 Million
by saying “Yes” and doing nothing. She
was supposed to do something but then didn’t have to do that something. The something was cancelled and she had no
more responsibility to the group that contacted her. And she still had the money.

Is that enough?

Maybe I should tell you that the girls works
all over North America for sure and was supposed to work in Ottawa… but didn’t. And it was only a “one off job”.

Imagine $2.5 Million for one little task.

Now that likely has thrown you for a loop
when you connect big money to one lady and to Ottawa.

Good Lord it has to be a politician again…!!!
Was it in health care? Maybe aboriginal
stuff? How about fighter jets – maybe she
was the expert to check on tight bolts and nuts on the new fighter jets that
are skyrocketing in price?

That must have thrown you off by now. Good riddle
to say the least.

Well that is enough pulling your leg – isn’t
it?

The little lady’s name is Taylor Swift. They
signed her to do a concert entitled a “Capital Hoedown” and gave her the $2.5
Million as a standard practice.

Then they cancelled the concert and gave the
fans their money back… highly anticipating that Taylor, the dear little lady,
would give their money back. But she
didn’t and apparently won’t.

This Blog is read by many people. Some of
them are little older. Many of them are in Canada and the colder parts of the
USA. The stats tell me all that.

So for those folk today I offer something
special.

It is February 19 and Ontario is about to get
another snow storm. To the west of Ontario they have just had another blizzard –
for non-blizzard people means lots of snow and high winds. In these cases Canadians and Northern US
people stay inside.

And on these days they usually do things on
their computers. Things like Facebook and email are popular more and more this
winter. You can also see as the storm
hits an area there are way more posts than normal. BUT not all your emails and
Facebook posts are answered – are they?

Having said all that I have something to
offer these storm bound and storm stayed friends of mine. It is called “Reddit” and also another one
that is kind of connected “Imgur”. These
two sites will help anyone make it through a storm wherever it might be and for
whatever time is needed to get through it.

BUT a fair warning, both are a ridiculously time
wasting. Once into the sites and into what they do you will not come out for
hours! In fact my guess is… if you start
today you may not come out until Springtime is half over! Winter will have gone and you will not be
able to even remember where it went!!!

I do not know how to explain “www.reddit.com” – other than it’s like the
comment area on Facebook… only a gazillion times more – on almost any topic.
And if the topic doesn’t exist you can start one… then sit back and watch how
many people might think like you did at that moment.

“Imgur” is all about images. People are allowed to comment on any image
that appears and then you can Like or Dislike the photo… resulting in so many
points for the image… and comments can be good or not so good – crude at times
and without much editing… resulting in unkind comments at times. Instead of
just your world of Friends seeing the photo and image… the entire world can see
it.

My suggestion is that you may not want to
contribute something that is too personal, something or someone that you love…
because as sure as I type this there are real jerks that will cut it to pieces.

www.imgur.com
is one of the strangest places I have visited on the Web – yet totally fascinating!

So, now as the storm approaches today for
central Ontario… and those in Northern Ontario along with Manitoba blow snow…
enjoy the Reddit and Imgur.

I do not know an antidote for these two sites
yet… other than a good shovel and lots of snow!

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Misty Hollow Carving is the sponsor of this Blog. Misty Hollow began in 2008. This is some of "The Misty Hollow Story" and how the Northumberland Community Futures Development Corporation helped me. The Video was created by Chris Oliver of CCO Productions

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Murray Lincoln

The Wood Carver of Misty Hollow

About the Wood Carver of "Misty Hollow"

Murray launched Misty Hollow carving in 2008 after retiring as a Minister. Now besides working at his Misty Hollow Carving Shop he is also involved in a number of volunteer roles in the community. Contact Murray at murray.lincoln@gmail.com